Latest features Guy Grieve interview

Date Published:

03/10/2007

They say there's no such thing as a free lunch. But 'they' clearly haven't met Guy Grieve & Tommi Miers, a pair of adventurers, writers, and free-lunch experts.

The dynamic duo have traveled the length of Britain surviving on the food that they are able to hunt, forage, shoot or catch. Channel 4's new series, Wild Gourmets, follows the pair on their mission not just to survive off the land, but to dine like royalty in the process. In part one, Benjie Goodhart caught up with the writer, adventurer and forager Guy Grieve.

Did you have to read up on British flora and fauna, or did you already know it all?
No, no-one knows it all. I knew enough to get by, but I wanted to do more than get by. I got my information in the best and only way possible, which is through people. For example in Cornwall, there was a wonderful ranger who was in charge of the land that we were on, and he helped us find the most amazing beefsteak mushroom, which I’d never seen before in my life. They're like gold. And now, because of that, I'll always be able to find a beefsteak mushroom, by learning from someone who knew.

You sold labour and bartered goods, didn't you? How did that work?
All outdoorsy trades in Britain are short of labour, be it fishing, mining, be it forestry or any kind of agriculture. Farmers are always after cheap labour. So we thought it would make sense to offer to do work in exchange for certain crucial items or ingredients that we needed. You could help the farmer with some work on his land, or, for example, I helped some scallop divers. The deal was that they'd take the lion's share, but we'd take enough for a meal. Or we would barter, so if we had some really good mushrooms, for example, we might try and swap them for something in a farm shop.

Was making Wild Gourmets fun?
Yeah, it was really good fun. Actually, the great thing about living outdoors is that you're not weighed down by possessions. It's a wonderfully uninhibited way to live. And it's so beautiful. I'm obsessed by water - I think in my last life I was an otter. All the rivers and waterfalls and lakes and seascapes we came across were so beautiful, and by going swimming you can actually enter those realms and have a fantastic time. And I found Tommi really easygoing, good company, just a real pal. It’s quite nice at a certain age, when you think you've made all your friends, to have a chance to make a new friend. She was brilliant. And also she took the mickey out of me, which was fantastic.

What were the best moments?
I went swimming off the Cornish coast in search of mussels, in beautiful clear water. Diving down and holding on to the rocks, the waves overhead, and seeing this vision of beautiful, huge mussels feeding happily on the plankton, it was a wonderful sight. Then there was the honour of coming across a hind after four hours of stalking her across an enormous Scottish estate. We were lucky enough to kill that beast immediately, humanely, and then to go through the whole process of skinning and butchering the animal, and then coming back with the most exquisite tenderloin meat which Tommi cooked up simply and we ate while a force 12 gale came in. The waterfalls were blowing back up the hill. We put the tent up in a dip in the land and the wind just blew straight over us and we had a good stove and plenty of wood.

And the worst moments?
I think the biggest low for me was having to move on after time spent in each location. I would have loved to spend more time in each place. I like to make camp, settle down, and stay somewhere for a long time.

What was the worst dish you ate?
The worst, without a single moment's hesitation, was the eel. I abhor eel in any form that it comes. It was the closest I've ever come to torture in my short life.

So what’s next for you?
Well, I feel the revolution I started in my life in Alaska is incomplete, in that my family stayed behind. And I want to experience another wilderness, and I believe that the greatest wilderness of all is the sea. I've managed to find a second-hand sailing boat off the coast of Venezeula, and I'm going to head off there with my family and attempt to sail back. It's a journey of 7,000 miles and it promises to be another adventure.

Wild Gourmets is on Channel 4 on Tuesdays at 8:30pm